Dr Peter Dingle Qualifications

Dr Dingle the public health advocate

In his role over the last 25 years as a public health advocate Dr Dingle has ruffled many feathers, particularly on his stance against large pharmaceutical and junk food companies. As a result it is not unexpected that there are a lot of myths floating around about Dr Peter Dingle’s qualifications and so called sceptics on the internet trying to denigrate him. As a public health advocate Dr Dingle has been campaigning for truth in health on topics including processed breakfast foods, food additives, pesticide use, toxic chemicals in the home, heavy metal contamination and toxic pharmaceuticals for a long time. As a result of this he has been threatened and abused many times, but continues to stand up for what is right based on the evidence.

Dr Dingle’s Degrees

Dr Peter Dingle has a 4 year Bachelor of Education in science with a sub major in physical education dating back 3 decades. As a result in the early eighties Dr Dingle taught human biology and health education in year 12 and physical education and science throughout the years in high schools around Australia.

Dr Dingle’s second degree is a Bachelor of Environmental Science from Murdoch University and first class honours. Dr Dingle’s honours project was on the topic of exposure and health effects of pesticides used for termite control in WA. In 1994 Dr Dingle completed a PhD also at Murdoch University on the topic of health effects of chemicals and toxins people are exposed to in their home. Since then Dr Dingle continued to research in the area of health and the environment.

Dr Dingle’s teaching and research

Dr Dingle has held a teaching position at Murdoch University (where he obtained his later 2 degrees) teaching “Pollutants and Toxicology” and “Health and the Environment” since 1989 and coordinating the degree program in Health and the Environment.

Since taking on his academic position at Murdoch University Dr Dingle has had more than 25 honours students (full time research for a year), half a dozen Masters students (6 months to 2 years) and 4 PhD students (3-5 years) have graduate under Dr Dingle’s leadership.

In addition he has supervised literally thousands of undergraduate students over the years in their study of health and the environment and the topics they have written their essays which range from pesticides and pharmaceuticals to nutritional illnesses and cancer. Many of Dr Dingle’s undergraduate student have inspired his work as a public advocate. The latest was Nadia Uink and her original research on cholesterol deception lead to the research and publication of the book by the same name by Dr Dingle with Nadia as a co-author. Many of Dr Dingle’s students have also gone on to work in various careers in health and the environment from state and federal health authorities to careers in occupation health with large mining companies.

Beyond just a degree

A qualification however is not just an undergraduate degree. In fact most academics do not have qualifications specific to a narrow undergraduate area. They create new fields of research as a tangent to our earlier studies. That is why they stand at the cutting edge of their field. If they only accepted undergraduate or even PhDs as a qualification then at least 50% of academics would have no qualifications in the area they teach and research and are so called expert in, maybe even as many as 90%. For example, one professor of sustainable agriculture has a degree in biochemistry, not agriculture or sustainabilty. Another one has a degree in physics and is recognised as one of Australia's leading researchers in climate change, another professor teachers environmental management and did his undergraduate degree in botany. Peter Newman a well know professor in Sustainability did his original degree in organic lead chemistry, John Bailey the current Dean of Environmental Science did his degree in chemistry and started the course at Murdoch University in environmental law and impact assessment. Very few if any of the toxicologists working for the government have any actual qualification in toxicology. Usually it is biology, biochemistry or chemistry. A far cry from toxicology. And so the list goes on. David Suzuki a well-known environmentalist has a degree in biology and PhD in genetics. It is really what academics do in their research that builds their credibility in the field.

20 years of research and teaching is much greater than a simple undergraduate degree or diploma. Academics, like Dr Dingle live their profession, surrounding themselves with all the information, research and people to help you be a leader in the chosen field.

Dr Dingle has also been scoffed at because he is not a medical doctor but he is writing and speaking about health. On the contrary many doctors comment on nutrition and some adds on television suggest to go and see your doctor for health advice yet very few have any qualification in nutrition or lifestyle matters related to health, even worse they did not study it in any of their 5 years at university. This is compared to Dr Dingle’s 10 years of study at University on the topic and 20 years plus as a researcher in this field. There is extensive research in the scientific publications showing GP training has little or no nutrition. Even better just ask your doctor or look at their title on the wall. The leading GP health speakers in the country have no research or qualifications in nutrition or health. They are great at what they do but Medicine is not health.

While Dr Dingle began his research in environmental toxicology and the health effects of exposure to toxic substances, for the past 15 years, along with dozens of graduate research students (honours and PhD), and hundreds of hours of teaching and undergraduate research students and their essays he has been researching areas in nutritional toxicology from food additives, toxic effects of medications, foods and food labelling and healthy digestion and probiotics. This transition was natural because it deals with many of the same concepts. For example what is nutritious at one level is toxic at another, you have the same exposure routes and it is the same basic biochemistry and physiology. Both areas are quite similar and have a lot of overlap.

Nutritional toxicology is the study of nutritional and food substances and their contribution to or reduction of toxic effects on the human body. For example what are some of the toxic effects of some of the components of milk or the toxic effects of animal proteins. As well as the role nutrients have in the reduction of the effects of toxic substances. It became apparent that you cannot just study toxicology without studying the other side of the same equation.

To put the concept of research into perspective when Dr Dingle researches a topic it can be dozens or even hundreds of hours. For example, along with one of Dr Dingle’s students has been researching cholesterol together for the past 2 years. Not may other people if any in the country can make that claim.

Dr Peter Dingle has spoken at many international and national conferences as an expert on health. In January 2011 he spoke at an international conference in the US on health and wellbeing and was asked to be a key note speaker by the organiser for a conference later in the year on “Food and health”. At a national level Dr Dingle has been a keynote speaker at more than 20 professional conferences speaking on health and wellbeing. Including medical and veterinary conferences in Western Australia.

In the second half of 2011 Dr Dingle has been invited to run a course on nutritional medicine for fifth year chiropractic students at Murdoch University where he has done all his research and teaching for the past 20+ years. It is worth noting here that chiropractic students do significantly more on nutrition in their degree than do GPs.

Some examples of research Dr Dingle has carried out includes

Research reports
Breakfast foods
Yoghurt and probiotic
Food labelling
Soft Drinks

Research students Thesis topic on

Cholesterol
Allergies and asthma
Food labelling
Breakfast foods
Grain consumption and breakfast foods
Nutritional qualities of take home dinners
Allergy and probiotics
Pesticides and health
Vaccinations
Developing health lifestyle programs (including living smart and seniors smart with my PhD students)
Healthy ageing (PhD)
Developing a health, environment and lifestyle program (PhD)
Effect of indoor air quality on causes and symptoms of asthma (PhD)


University text books Dr Dingle has written

Second and third year text books on:
Pollution and toxicology
Pollutants and the human environment
Health and the environment

Dr Dingle is currently writing a text book on
Nutritional and environmental toxicology (due 2011)
Workplace Wellness (Due 2012)

Public Essays (all referenced to scientific journals) on nutritional and environmental toxicology including:
Vitamin D
Milk the poison
Milk and calcium
Salt
Allergies and probiotics
Life expectancy
Meat
Mould
Sick homes and toxic chemicals
Probiotics
Cholesterol
Statin drugs
Medical research bias
Corrupt drug companies
Chocolate
Kids chemicals and cancer
Breakfast junk foods
Multiple Sclerosis
Vitamin D
Non ionising radiation
Organic food
Slow eating

Books
Dr Dingle currently has 8 books in print including
My Dog Eats Better Than Your Kids
The 6 week healthy eating planner
The great cholesterol deception

Scientific publications

Dr Dingle has more than 100 scientific papers published of which 90% or more relate to one aspect or another to health. For more information on this go to his profile at the Murdoch University website.

Thank god he is not a medical doctor

Finally it should be noted that Dr Dingle is not a medical doctor and has never said he is a medical doctor. Dr Dingle has a PhD which took 4 years of full time research after his initial degrees. A medical “doctor” has an honorary doctorate bestowed after completing a Masters on them while they practice medicine. When they stop practicing they can no longer claim to be a Dr. Dr Dingle has a complete doctorate which is a title he has all his life. So when the media says Dr Dingle does not have a medical degree they fail to acknowledge Dr Dingle will remain a Dr in the true sense of the qualification always.

Only a fool would say Dr Dingle has no qualifications in health.


To see some of Dr Dingle’s articles visit
Vitamin D
Raw eating